


Post

by ienablu



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 09:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2726525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ienablu/pseuds/ienablu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles and Raven reunite under an awning in the rain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Post

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elenothar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenothar/gifts).



It is mid-February, and winter this year has come in the form of cold and overcast days with cold and rainy nights. It is not Charles's favorite weather by any stretch of imagination, but he feels he has spent quite enough time cooped up in the mansion, and he makes the effort to accompany Hank on his daily errands into town. The lingering damp from the nightly rains is far easier to maneuver around in than the icy dangers of snow, though Charles still wishes Hank was closer to the completion of the car-portable motorized wheelchair he has designed. Charles is just glad that Hank slows down his pace while Charles wheels himself along into the grocery store, the hardware store, the bank, the library. 

On a good day, Charles can wheel himself through all four stops. On a bad day, his hands start trembling in the grocery store, and Hank has to push him around so he has enough strength to sign for withdrawals at the bank. 

The only place Charles cannot accompany Hank is the post office. Despite his many years spent in Westchester, he had forgotten about the series of steps leading up to the post office, up until the first time he had joined Hank on the errands. Hank had stammered out apologies, but Charles had waved him off, and wheeled himself down the block. An awning extended over a bench in front of a diner, and Charles parked himself there to escape the drizzle of rain that had been falling then.

There is something more than a drizzle falling now, and Charles pulls his scarf tighter around his neck to protect himself from the biting cold. Hank has been in the post office for some time now; over the past few weeks, Hank has developed a camaraderie with some of the workers. Charles tries to be optimistic about it; he is glad Hank is socializing, and Hank tends not to dally when there is little mail. Some time spent in the cold is more than worth the letters regarding the reopening of the school. There is still so much work to be done for the fall, so much that Charles can barely stand to think about it at times, but the letters he receives make it all worth it: prior students begging to be re-enrolled, parents of newly-manifesting mutants inquiring about admittance, older mutants wondering if the school were for youngsters only. Each stays with him, tucked into a different corner of his mind.

The sound of the rain dampers the background noise of others' minds, and Charles does not realize he has company until they join him under the awning. It's a a young man, who seems similar to many of the young men that Charles had gone to university with. "Do you mind if I sit here?" he asks, flashing Charles an apologetic smile.

Charles nods wordlessly, before turning back to stare at the street. His pulse picks up, he finds his throat tightens too far to speak. He takes a deep breath, and ignores the way his hands start to shake in his lap. Quietly, keeping his gaze on the empty street in front of them, he asks, "If I apologized, would you accept it?"

The young man next to him goes stiff. "You told me you would never read my mind," Raven says. Her voice sounds strange coming from the mouth of a stranger, and it briefly throws Charles off guard, despite it being a prank she would regularly pull on Charles.

It hardly feels like a prank this time. "I do a cursory sweep of all the minds in the vicinity. Habit, I assure you, nothing more." He doesn't mention that his control has weakened from years of disuse, and weakened further by the strain of D.C. He does his best to shield against her mind – and the wave of discomfort and unease coming from her – and continues, "If I were truly reading your mind, there would be no reason for me to ask, now would there?"

Raven stays quiet, but after a moment, she flickers back to her blonde self.

Charles carefully keeps his gaze forward front of him. He does not look around to see if anyone had seen Raven transform, he does not cast his mind out to check for panicked thoughts. Raven has nothing to be ashamed of, she has nothing to hide, and Charles regrets ever believing that she did.

A shameful part of him, though, does not check because in this dreary weather there are so few out to have seen.

"If I apologized," he repeats, "would you accept it?"

Raven bites her lower lip, considering it. "It would depend on how you apologized."

"Sincerely," Charles says, after a moment. "That would be the ideal."

Raven stays quiet.

Tears are pricking at the corners of his eyes when he finally turns to look at her. She is staring straight ahead, her head held high, her blonde hair loose around her shoulders. She looks beautiful and confident and proud, and he regrets not telling her that more often. In her blonde form, in her natural blue form, in whatever form she took. "I'm sorry," Charles says. His throat tightens once more, and he swallows past it. "For what has happened, for how I treated you, for my not seeing how I was treating you... truly, I am."

"I believe you," Raven says, finally. They sit together in silence, accompanied only by the muddled sound of rain slanting against the sidewalk. She lets out a long sigh. "Thank you for not asking me to forgive you."

"I will," Charles admits, because he wants to be entirely honest with Raven, even when it hurts to do so. "One day. And I hope when that day comes, you will be able to to."

She turns her head slightly, and looks at him out of the corner of her eyes. "I hope so too," she says, barely audible above the rain.

Charles swallows once more. There is part of him that focuses on the fact that she has not forgiven him yet. A part of him doesn't believe he deserves to be forgiven. Mostly, he tries to push past that, and instead lets himself be overwhelmingly relieved that Raven has hope for the future, lets her hope bolster his own. He blinks past the tears, and says, "You seem to be walking better. Your leg is healing well?"

"Healing." She turns more to him, her gaze goes briefly to his temple. "You?"

The cut along his temple had looked far more ghastly than it had felt. There is some slight discoloration, and it still feels tender, but it will fade in time. "Healing," he agrees.

Her gaze on him shifts, and she slowly turns back to the street. Her hands are not as tightly clenched in her lap, and she looks more at ease than she had been at first.

Charles wants nothing more than to ask her if she will come back with him to the mansion, if she will just come _home_ , but it would be a selfish request, and Raven deserves better. He casts his mind out, looking for the brightness of Hank's mind, before he clears his throat. "Hank has finished with his errands at the post office, and is on his way back. I don't know if you care to see him."

"One day," Raven echoes. She flickers back to the young man, and takes on the slouching air of the many bored undergraduate students who believed they had far better things to do than attend class.

Hank appears a minute later, splashing down the sidewalk, his jacket up around his ears. "Professor! You wouldn't believe how many–" he cuts himself off as he stops under the awning. His glasses are fogged up in the weather, and he takes them off and scrubs them on an exposed sliver of his shirt. His hands shake as he puts his glasses back on, and he gives a polite smile to Raven, before turning back to Charles. "I've already taken the mail to the car. I got some of the packages I ordered to help with the basement remodeling, and you received another pile of letters."

"Excellent," Charles says, smiling up at Hank. "I can't wait to read them." He releases the brakes on his wheelchair, and moves to the edge of the awning. He turns back around, and smiles at Raven. "Lovely speaking with you."

Raven just nods, grunting out an inarticulate reply. But there's a hint of a smile on her face, and Charles beams the entire way back to the mansion.


End file.
